Fences
August Wilson
1945-2005
Early Life
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Grew up in in a Pittsburgh ghetto
called “The Hill”
Father was white and abandoned
mother and 6 kids
Mother worked as a janitor after father
left
Education
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Dropped out of school in ninth grade
– Falsely accused of plagiarism (racism)
Self-educated (read extensively at the local
library
Read works of African Americans such a s
Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison
He submitted his poems to a black
publication at the University of Pittsburgh
Early Adulthood
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1968 he founded the Black Horizon Theater
Company in St. Paul, Minnesota
Community theater aimed at increasing the
political awareness and activism of area
residents (civil rights movement)
He used the playhouse as the forum for his
first dramas
Writing Career
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(1981) Black Bart and the Sacred Hills
(1982) Jitney
(1984) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
– First big hit
– Opened at Yale and later moved to Broadway
– About a black blues singer’s exploitation of her
fellow musicians
– Play establishes Wilson as an up and coming
playwright on the national stage. (noted for its
authentic, lively dialogue.
Fences
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1985
Pulitzer Prize winning play
Former athlete who forbids his son to
accept an athletic scholarship
Set in the 1950’s in a big city just prior
to the civil rights movement
Background on Fences
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Turn of the century blacks migrated North
and had difficulty assimilating into the white
culture
Often forced to take menial jobs and live in
run-down, segregated sections of the city
Never lost their dream for equality that M.L.
King would try to win for them in the 1960’s
Setting of the Play
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Ancient two story brick home in a big
city ghetto-most likely Pittsburgh
Year is 1957—just prior to the Civil
Rights Movement
Themes
Evils of Prejudice
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A man should be judged by what he
does rather than by what he looks like
Troy symbolizes the tragedy of a
generation held back by white
suppression
Human Frailty
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Humans are by nature imperfect
We are prone to repeating the
mistakes of our past
Human condition—Troy’s boyhood
abuse leads to his parental failure
Missed Possibilities
(Dream Deferred)
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We must be prepared and free to act
on opportunities that present
themselves: Both Troy and Cory miss
out on opportunities
Old baseball rag is a reminder of
triumph and failure
The Destructive Nature of
Envy
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Troy’s bitterness concerning his missed
opportunities leads to an unhealthy
envy which causes his son an
opportunity to advance
Inability to Adapt to
Change
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Troy is unable to see the changes in
America’s social fabric.
He is blinded by his own past
Cory sees possibilities Troy can’t even
imagine
A Desire to Escape from
our Responsibilities
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Troy’s desire to escape is domestic
responsibilities ironically results in yet
another responsibility